Comorbidity With OCD – Accompanying Disorders

I decided that the next chapter will be about other mood and/or anxiety disorders that may occur together with OCD. Many patients do not just have ‘pure’ OCD, but also another, or even more than one other disorders belonging to the wide array of mental afflictions. The most prominent of these is major depressive disorder (MDD).

Logically speaking, this (these) may precede, come simultaneously with, or follow the onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Again, I must stress that diagnosis in psychiatric illnesses is not as clearly defined by boundaries as is the case in somatic diseases. So very, very intrusive thoughts may impact on one’s quality of life just as much as the delusions in psychosis do, although they aren’t as readily visible or audible.

An intriguing common theme in OCD and MDD is: impaired appraisal of something. In OCD that ‘something’ may be some threat signal in the external environment; in MDD it can be an inner state (hopelessness). Variations are possible.

(tbc)

(For now, I will leave you with a gripping painting by Vincent van Gogh, titled: ‘At Eternity’s Gate’, dated around 1890.)